Honeybrains, a New Cafe, Makes Normal Food Smart Again

Soylent’s website explains that it’s time we moved on to “Food 2.0” because Food 1.0 takes too much time and is too complicated (I’m paraphrasing). But if you’re still eating Food 1.0 for nourishment, you’ll find the concept behind Honeybrains, a new restaurant at 372 Lafayette Street in Noho, vaguely interesting and definitely trendy. It’s like Food 1.5, give or take. (Because what’s math? Maybe after eating at Honeybrains you’ll know.)

Besides being ripe for the juiciest puns in food-business—a fea(s)t in itself—Honeybrains claims to live at the intersection of brain science and food. The 35-seat cafe was started by three siblings, Galit, Tomer, and Dr. Alon Seifan: according to the New York Post, Dr. Alon Seifan was an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medicine’s neurology facility before moving to sunny Florida and launching the Institute for Progressive Neurology; the siblings just love food, we assume.

What does brain science plus food look like in menu form? The usual stuff, actually, except at Honeybrains, they refer to “the process by which we mindfully choose and combine ingredients—based on the best available science” as a “L.I.F.E. Process.” You guessed it! That’s an acronym. “L stands for love, I stands for ingredients, F stands for flavor and fun, and E stands for education.” Honeybrains brings “our L.I.F.E. Process into everything we do.”

In other words, those are some very L.I.F.E.-y avocado toasts, Cobb salads, steak sandwiches, hummus, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, coffees, fresh juices, and kombuchas. Sweetbreads? Not on the menu, unless you count whole grain toast with one of the zillion raw honeys from the honey bar. The food is definitely healthy, and at $10 a sandwich, squarely inside the normal price of a New York snack. What could go wrong? You’re having a tasty lunch and fighting off Alzheimer’s, too, says Dr. Seifan.

Part of the appeal at Honeybrains is that it’s not just a restaurant, it’s a “stimulating and stress-free environment.” I’m not sure how stimulating and stress-free go together, unless massages are involved, but the owners have explained that the space will also give live and streamed lectures on brain wellness. Nerdy! But cool!

One last thing, especially for our visual learners: the Honeybrains logo is incredibly cute.